On January 17, 2020, a federal appeals court threw the case of
Juliana v. United States out and advised the young plaintiffs to seek remedy for climate change from Congress or through elections. A three-judge panel agreed that the government played a role in causing climate change. But the 2-1 majority maintained that federal courts have no power to order corrective action. In a blistering dissent, Judge Josephine Staton wrote: "...the government accepts as fact that the United States has reached a tipping point crying out for a concerted response—yet presses ahead toward calamity. It is as if an asteroid were barreling toward Earth and the government decided to shut down our only defenses. Seeking to quash this suit, the government bluntly insists that it has the absolute right and unreviewable power to destroy the Nation." Lawyers for the youths said they intend to appeal the ruling to the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. [
On November 8, 2018, the trial in the case of Juliana v. United States was delayed again by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Read more on this update here.) Below, read our article on this case that was originally published on March 17, 2017.]
Levi Draheim is a nine-year-old science geek. He founded an environmental club as a fourth grader and gives talks about climate change to audiences of grown-ups. His home is on a slender barrier island on Florida’s Atlantic coast, 21 miles south of Cape Canaveral and a five-minute walk from the beach. By mid-century, his sandy childhood playground could be submerged by rising seas. He will be just 42.
Nathan Baring is 17 and a high school junior in Fairbanks, Alaska—120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. He loves cold weather and skis. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Now winter snows that Baring once celebrated as early as August in Fairbanks can
